Does more bars really mean better mobile service? Are ones really gone forever once you empty the trash? PopMech tackles some of the most frustrating falsehoods of the digital age

Jailbreaking and Rooting are Illegal

Jailbreaking and Rooting are Illegal

Smartphone owners can jailbreak their iOS devices and root their Android phones to get around the restrictions of manufacturers and carriers. But is this ominous-sounding practice legal? The word itself—jailbreaking—makes it sound like the process is illegal. In actuality, it's more complicated: The technique both is and isn't illegal under U.S. copyright law. Last fall, when the Library of Congress updated the rules for 2013 through late 2015, it decided that you can legally jailbreak your smartphone (though you'll void your Apple warranty) but not necessarily your tablet, because, the Library says, "tablets" is an ill-defined category. What is definitely not legal is unlocking your phone. The Library's ruling prohibits tinkering with your device so it works on different cellular networks without your wireless carrier's permission, which is subject to as much as $2500 in fines, or even jail time.

Legal questions aside, is jailbreaking worth the trouble? Nearly 7 million iOS users who cracked their devices using the latest jailbreak since it became available in February say yes. And as for the riskiness of jailbreaking an iPad, just consider: Despite the law, absolutely no one has (yet) been prosecuted or fined.

More Bars Equals Better Mobile Service

More Bars Equals Better Mobile Service

If your phone has five bars, you'll get the best wireless service performance, right? Well, no. Those bars indicate your signal strength to the nearest cellular tower, but if many other people are also connected to that tower, you can still experience dropped calls and poor speed due to the congestion caused by networks' limited capacities. For instance, it might take about a square block of people in Manhattan to overload a single cell tower, whereas in Wyoming, it would take a population spread over 15 square miles.

And even if you capture some of that service, speed varies by network provider. According to wireless-coverage mapper RootMetrics, AT&T has the fastest LTE data network, followed by Verizon and then Sprint.